Pizza in India is caught between artisanal ambition and fast-food nostalgia

For Delhi-based drummer Aditya Bhagavatula, 22, pizza was once a late-night ritual: Netflix, greasy box in hand, no questions asked. But pizza in India isn’t just meant for mindless comfort anymore.  

Breathing boxes, long used globally and via fast-food chains, are now commonplace in India, keeping pizzas hot and travel-friendly. For instance, Baking Bad and COMO - Pizzeria & Cafe have turned pizza delivery in India into a science with levelled boxes and trained delivery fleets for that Instagram-perfect cheese pull. It works; Baking Bad has 70 per cent repeat orders on Zomato, shares founding-partner Saniya Puniani.

Mumbai’s Rocket Man Pizza tests every new item for delivery durability, lining pans to protect the crusts, packing sauces separately, and timing the post-bake rests so that steam doesn’t leave the base soggy. Indian pizza brands have realised that pizza is largely being ordered in, especially in 2025, with cloud kitchen pizza leading the way for delivery-first models. 

But they also know that the consumer today isn’t the one who would order when pizza first became popular in the country. Lighter crusts and quality ingredients have replaced the heavy, doughy pizza that once defined the market. “It can’t be something that becomes a ball of flour you have to chew through,” says Bhagavatula. 

Such preferences were rare in the 1990s, when Domino’s (1996, Delhi) and Pizza Hut (1996, Bengaluru) pushed thick, doughy bases with basic toppings.  Deep-dish pizzas soon followed, and by early 2010, pizza had become mainstream in India, appearing on every menu as an easy option. However, it was Nirula’s (1977, Delhi) that had already done the hard work by introducing Indians to pizza. Amol Kumar, who founded Leo's Pizzeria in Delhi in 2016, credits Nirula’s for creating a community of pizza eaters in the 1970s. That is why there’s even a market for it today, even though consumers want a different version of the pizza. 

Why pizza in India traded thick crusts for artisanal ambition

By the 2000s, it was losing relevance, but its legacy built the market for Indian pizza brands to grow. About 15 years ago, thin crust pizzas began replacing the heavy doughs of the ’90s, first in hotel coffee shops like Citrus at The Leela, Mumbai or Machaan at Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Delhi, where chefs experimented with toppings and crusts. At that point, coffee shops were still a place for go-to experiences, like standalone restaurants are today,” says Jatin Mallick, chef-partner at Delhi-based restaurants Dos and Tres.

The shift to artisanal Napolitean Pizza with fermented dough and quality ingredients changed the game seven years ago, pushing gourmet pizza in India and helping cloud kitchen pizza brands flourish. 

“PIZZA IS A COMFORT DISH FOR INDIANS BECAUSE OF ITS WHOLESOMENESS. IT MAKES SENSE TO INCORPORATE LOCAL INDIAN FLAVOURS THAT GO WITH IT.” — Saniya Puniani

“The economics of real estate just doesn’t support large-format, pizza-only dine-in spaces anymore—especially when delivery is so seamless,” says Rohan Mangalorkar, co-founder of Rocket Man Pizza, a delivery-only pizza cloud kitchen launched in Mumbai in 2024, specialising in Detroit-style square pizzas. “Cloud kitchens cater to today’s low-contact lifestyle. Customers are happy eating great food in their pajamas without the social pressure of dining out. But it’s also about how fast and consistent cloud kitchens have become,” adds Mangalorkar, 37, who grew up eating pizza from Smokin’ Joe’s in Mumbai. 

Is pizza in India no longer fast food?

A February 2024 reportstated that Jubilant Foodworks, which operates Domino's, experienced its fifth consecutive quarter of decline in profits, earning ₹657.1 million (US$ 7.9 million), well below analyst projections of ₹902.6 million. Revenue growth slowed for the seventh straight quarter. 

Cloud kitchens, meanwhile, are financially more viable—serving thousands each day as opposed to the 40 customers walking into a restaurant. “If the offering is focused, a cloud kitchen is cheaper to open (₹30-40lakh), versus [spending] ₹1 crore and a half to open a restaurant. It makes sense to have an audience that knows your product before opening a restaurant with heavy rentals,” says Ankit Verma, co-founder of Nomad Pizzas. Verma launched 60 successful cloud kitchens before opening 10 restaurants across the country. For a generation used to minimal interaction, delivery-only kitchens suit the Zomato or Swiggy lifestyle. 

Pizza in India remained more or less stagnant until the rise of Neapolitan-style doughs and hydrated crusts, which made chefs treat pizza as an ingredient-heavy dish rather than a quick meal. “Earlier, Indian restaurants and consumers overdid pizza as a celebratory meal. Plus, gourmet restaurants didn’t push the envelope or add value—you would get a pizza in a Quick Service Restaurant at ₹200, and the same at ₹700 at a restaurant,” says Mallick. 

“But, then again, Indians haven’t been the most experimental, because culturally, we are strongly rooted in our cuisine which has a really distinct and strong identity. To move away from it and to appreciate something else, takes time,” he adds. “Just like the Spanish, Chinese, Japanese or Thai—they have a pizza culture, but their own distinct identity is their regional cuisine, which holds strong.” 

The ingredient-first shift changing pizza in India

When Kumar launched  Leo’s nine years ago, Italian flour and tomatoes were scarce and good cheese was hard to find. By 2025, 10-12 Italian flours and 15-20 types of Italian tomatoes are available in India, alongside locally produced burrata and buffalo mozzarella. 

“COMPARED TO A RESTAURANT, WHERE IT’S ALL ABOUT THE EXPERIENCE, IN THE DELIVERY-ONLY MODEL, THE MOST YOU CAN DO IS A GOOD PHOTOSHOOT. THE REST IS ALL UP TO THE PRODUCT.” — Ankit Verma

“There’s also been a recent focus on the process of making the dough and the science behind it, besides a desire to work with quality ingredients,” says Kumar.  “The Margherita is the hardest to nail because there’s nowhere to hide in the three-ingredient dish. Sourdough pizza is a trickier way of preparing the dough because of how sensitive the sourness and acidity levels are. Italians use a lot of different sauces, including pesto, and also a sweeter pumpkin sauce that is balanced by the addition of blue cheese. So, it’s all good. I’ll just draw the line at putting butter chicken gravy as the base, even though there is a market for it.

Mallick adds, “The marriage of the pizza sauce and toppings has to make sense and go beyond the traditional Margherita approach. It can be mascarpone cheese with smoky bacon and caramalised onions and a crusty dough. It has to create fun and mystery in your mouth, so it needs to be right, even texture-wise. Just like a moong dal will have a tempering of garlic or cumin or hing or mustard.”

These are concepts that perhaps even the average Indian middle class is aware of today, as they consume more with a rise in their per capita income. “People know fast food chains don’t use high-quality produce,” Mallick notes. Shriya Sharma, 34, a senior consultant at an education firm says, “I like a nice thin crust or a good sourdough Margherita pizza. Or one with burrata, arugula and balsamic, maybe a fig and goat’s cheese one. Hot honey is a popular drizzle on pizzas now. I’m allergic to gluten, so I’d rather eat pizza from a place that does pizzas well even though I have to shell out extra for it.” 

At Dos, Mallick serves a potato sourdough base pizza; inspired by the Scandinavian method, bread ferments for two weeks. “Fermented potato is easy on the gut and easy to digest, besides having more nutritional value,” he says. 

Rocket Man uses a 72-hour fermented dough and proprietary cheese blend, while Como Pizzeria & Cafe and Baking Bad both now  make their own preservative-free cheeses. .  “Pizza is not just a cheat-day meal. It’s just dough with healthy veggies like broccoli and spinach. The dish is not bad—it’s how it’s made that’s been bad,” says Saniya Puniani, founder of Como Pizzeria & Cafe, and founding-partner at Baking Bad.  

“THE ECONOMICS OF REAL ESTATE JUST DOESN’T SUPPORT LARGE-FORMAT, PIZZA-ONLY DINE-IN SPACES ANYMORE—ESPECIALLY WHEN DELIVERY IS SO SEAMLESS,” – Rohan Mangalorkar

Competition in the pizza cloud kitchen space in India has pushed brands to innovate. “Compared to a restaurant, where it’s all about the experience—the service and decor—in the delivery-only model, the most you can do is a good photoshoot. The rest is all up to the product. Even your menu needs to look sharp,” says Verma, who is currently in the process of trials of pizza dogs and sliders at Nomad Pizza. Nomad offers everything from Chicago Deep Dish to Neapolitan and Calzones, catering to customers willing to pay a premium for quality gourmet pizza. But popularity has its downside too.  Pizza began to lose its edge and novelty when it became too accessible. “Something will happen to sushi and dimsum too. Just like with pasta—it’s served at Halidrams’ as well, and people still enjoy it,” reckons Mallick. 

Why pizza in India thrives on comfort and consistency

In India, pizza went from being a celebratory meal to comfort food around 2008, when it became more accessible. “The ease itself is so comforting that people are willing to eat a compromised version of a dish. But today they don’t have to,” says Kumar. 

Puniani, however, disagrees: “Pizza is a comfort dish for Indians because of its wholesomeness. It makes sense to incorporate local Indian flavours that go with it. Baking Bad serves pizza with lamb keema and pickled onions as toppings. It will work in Hyderabad because the people there are used to it [the flavours]”.

For Puniani, the OG pizza is Nirula’s ‘cheese capsicum onion’ or ‘mutton sausage pizza’. For Mumbaikars, like Mangalokar, it’s Smokin’ Joes: “greasy, cheesy, and always a bit over the top. It wasn’t perfect, but it was delicious.” Mallick, despite running a gourmet restaurant himself, still orders from Domino’s: “Domino’s won’t die out because people know what they are going to get. I’m a firm believer in serving average dishes but serving them consistently. It’s the same case with potato chips—whether it’s Uncle Chipps and Lay’s—as long as it’s consistent, you know what you want to go for. It starts with the mouthfeel. The mouth salivates with a certain flavour and sends a signal to the brain, asking for something to be ordered. There’s science behind it,” he says. Even Bhagavatula, who makes the effort to dine at Camillo’s in Delhi, admits Domino’s still does the trick when he craves “junk food.” 

Pizza, for all its artisanal dough and gourmet ingredients, continues to thrive for its simplicity. Domino’s has survived because consistency builds cravings. India’s pizza story might be getting rewritten in cloud kitchens, but the greasy, predictable slice still has the final word.